How I got started in Benchrest Shooting

Rex Reneau said:
Dan Batko, in the first thread you mentioned Glenn Wood. There was a Glenn Wood that shot benchrest at the Edmond Oklahoma gun club (pre-Luther Okie Shooters) in the late 70s. I think he moved to San Angelo in 79 or 80. He was in the car business. The funny thing was that his nickname at the gun club was "Patsy". If this is the same Glenn, Small world.
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Rex,
I think that is the same Glenn Wood, he moved here from Oklahoma about that time. I am curious about the nickname. I knew at one time he worked for an oil company there, but can't remember about the car business, I don't know, must have been busy talkin' about guns or some such. I know he's a great guy and helped me out a lot getting started.
Best,
Dan Batko

"Where are we going and why am I in this basket?"
 
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Rex,
Glenn still has some of his best targets from Oklahoma taped to his garage wall. I know 'cause he showed them to me :)

Best,
Dan

"Where are we going and why am I in this basket?"
 
it was probably 1997/98 when I shot my first centerfire rifle (winchester 30-06). Started hunting with some friends and they had a wooden bench built to site in rifles. anyway we started doing that and I ended up enjoying that more than hunting. Starting getting into the accurate thing and come to find out my friends cousin (Gene Wheeler) shot benchrest. went to a match to watch them shoot in 1998 and bought my first 6ppc from Don Geraci, built by Raymond Brunea (spelling?). it was a Hart 1a (bright yellow stock) but it could shoot. I would take it out to my friends land and shoot 5 shot targets all day long with that good barrel (IDIOT). I have loved benchrest shooting ever since. Good people too. :)
 
Let's revive this thread; I'll start. Here’s the back story of how I got involved in benchrest.

I had been enjoying shooting my deer rifles, experimenting with various loads for accuracy and MV. I revelled in the occasional sub-MOA, three-shot groups I shot with those rifles. Later, I got a varmint rifle with a 4-16 scope, and was impressed with its accuracy -- I could oftentimes shoot sub-MOA, five-shot groups with that rifle. One day in 2009, I saw on the internet that a gun club not too far from the range I frequented was having a benchrest match one Saturday. I had never seen a benchrest match, so that Saturday my shooting buddy and I drove over to the match -- just to see what there was to see. After seeing the equipment (various full-blown custom guns, high-magnification NightForce scopes and high-dollar rests) and the scored targets, I realized most of those guys were out of my league. I said “most” because a few of them were shooting “factory” guns with moderately-prices scopes -- and those guys were shooting in “factory” class.

A couple of months later, that club had a 300 yard match scheduled and my shooting buddy and I thought that would be a fun thing to try, so we took our varmint rifles and signed-up in the “factory” class. I finished in last place -- by a comfortable margin. As I thought about my sorry score I got to thinking about parallax -- something to which I had never paid much attention before. When I got home and experimented with the AO on my scope as I looked though it at a distant target, I was amazed at how much the cross-hairs moved on the target as I moved my head around. That was the beginning of my benchrest “career“ -- and it is likely that I would not have gotten involved had there not been a factory class. Now, I’m a card-carrying member of the NBRSA and enjoy shooting in matches as often as I can -- I’ve even been to the Super Shoot. :)
 
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Indeed a good thread…

They say everything goes back to your childhood. Well I grew up drooling over a polished stainless barreled 40X chambered in 222 bedded in a beautiful candy apple red McMillan stock sitting in my dads gun cabinet. I was quite young when he would take me to the BR shoots at Factoryville, PA in the late 70’s. Being a kid with a short attention span he taught me to reload for him between matches to keep me busy. The bug started there.

When I was 11 a local club was holding a “turkey shoot”. Basically you paid a fee and everyone shot their rifles off a bench for the best group to win a turkey. My dad switched that candy apple red McMillan stock back to the factory walnut 40X stock as to not get the locals all worked up. At 11 I proceeded to lay a WOOPIN on everyone with that 40X. Saved that target for a good many years and it might still be around somewhere.

My dad quit shooting BR when I was still young but my thirst for accuracy was already deeply rooted. I took some machining courses in high school and went on to building by own rifles for myself and my friends for non-competitive shooting a varmint hunting. I built many rifles in the pursuit of better accuracy with no mentorship from anyone in the BR game. I had some varmint rifles that had no business shooting as good as they did. The most successful one was a 700 with a HV hart barrel in 220 Jaybird. I machined a dovetail in the bottom of the barrel below the chamber and press fit a matching bar into the barrel with mounting holes to bed into the stock. Long story short, it acted as a barrel block and worked extremely well.

In the mid 90’s I started to learn a great deal due to the internet and the fourms. Charles E stands out in my memory as a major source of learning. I don’t remember the forum I met him in but Dan Hackett saw it fit to educate me and share with me a great deal of his BR knowledge. He encouraged me to get to a BR match and see what it was about. I sure do miss talking with Dan.

It wasn’t until 2003 that I finally made it to a registered match. It was the 2003 IBS Group Nationals. I couldn’t take that Jaybird since it wouldn’t make weight so a good friend of mine set me up with his newly built Borden 6ppc LV rig. We showed up to the shoot with a mix match of bullets, a jug of N133, and a box of dies that had not been set up. I had no idea what I was doing. I had the decaping rod adjusted too low and was bulging the primer pockets. Filled the case with powder somewhere near the bottom of the neck. Seated the bullets till it looked about right. Went out and won a match with small group. I blindly changed loads and even ran out of bullets. Switched to a different bullet, (I think I bought some Watsons at the range), and continued to shoot well. I think I finished mid pack somewhere.

The most enlightening thing to me was not how accurate a rifle can shoot , but how REDICULOUSLY accurate and competitive a well built 6ppc will shoot even while doing everything wrong and not knowing squat chit about anything BR competition related. I’ve been quite successful in the relatively little bit of registered BR competition I’ve attended but my true passion lies in the pursuit of accuracy and the figuring out the hows and whys of it all.
 
Wow: almost 4 years and this thread is still alive.

My story:

When I decided to give up tournament skeet I was kind of at a loss. A couple of the guys at the local club suggested I come to one of the Saturday rim fire BR matches. I made my first ever drive to the rifle range ( it is separate from the skeet fields) at the club and never looked back. Within a month I had several rifles and started on my way through different bench gear, flags, etc. After not firing a single bullet gun for maybe 30 years I've had the time of my life trying to stick that itty bitty slug into very small rings on the target. When shooting skeet I rarely travelled more than 2 hours from home and had my pick of clubs. Now I think nothing of hopping in the car, driving 8 or more hours just to shoot a few cards with some of the nicest and most supportive people in the world. Thank you!

The same guys are still trying to get me into CF benchrest. Don't know how long I can resist..... bob
 
The ride

In 2000-01 I was telling Sara Harren how my 22-250 was wearing out the ground hogs on my farm, and she said "if it shot so good why didn't I come to a match and see how well it really shot." The hook was set. Her husband, Eddie Harren taught me the basics of reloading. I did ok in factory class. Curtis Nelson was shooting factory with a 260 and another friend Dean Breeden was already shooting a real race gun in 6 ppc. At the Maryland State shoot Bill Goad sold me his Farley #237 and I was off to the races. I won the 200-300 Nationals at Mainville, shooting a 250 at 300 yards for the first time at that range. Dennis Collins was sitting next to me at that match and when it was over, asked me what flag I was watching. I replied "What flag?" Rookie luck.
Since that time I have owned 14 Farleys, 2 which made it to the cover of Precision Shooting magazine. In 2006 I won Shooter of the year, traveling 12,000 miles, running up and down the east coast. Met some great people, whom I still enjoy their company. The past few years I have been shooting 6 power in 30X47.
I would be remiss without mentioning I could not have accomplished what I have done nor not be where I am today without the guidance and support of Kent Harshman, Ken Livengood, Al Weaver, and the friendship of Dean Breeden.
 
Sometime around 2001 or 2, after reading about a fun shoot near Somerset KY, I attended the Bluegrass Balloon Bust at Buck Creek. The day finished up with Jackie Stogsdil and James Phillips IIRC- shooting eggs at 600 yards in the shoot off. I was hooked. For the next couple of years I attended the two per year fun matches at Buck Creek and when Jackie told me they were going to start shooting IBS VFS matches and asked if I would be interested I said yes. For several years I drove 180 miles both ways to shoot in the monthly matches. Later we started shooting IBS matches at the Gallatin Gun Club about 30 minutes away from my home near Nashville TN. Four years ago Danny Hensley asked me if Gallatin would consider shooting Ultimate Benchrest Matches. We did and have not looked back. In season I shoot at Gallatin, Two Brothers (Auburn KY), BGSL (Wilmore KY), Buck Creek and Birmingham when I can, with the occasional trip to other ranges now and then. From March thru Oct I shoot a minimum of two matches per month and two rifles in each match. In the past two years I'm pretty sure I've shot more score matches than anyone else and would shoot more if I had the time. You could probably say I'm addicted.

Rick
 
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